Monday, March 30, 2015

Fraternity Covers Up With "Failure-Of-Proof" Defense.

In a recent article I found from January 23rd, 2015 the author exploits a Fraternity whom calls Michigan State home. The MSU Fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha as known as “Pike,” shared a viral video of a sex act with a "seemingly intoxicated girl" (Vargas-Cooper 2015).  This short clip shows what a reasonable person would believe to be an intoxicated woman giving oral sex to a man believed to be a Pike brother due to the fact that during the clip the man asks the woman “What’s the best fraternity at MSU?” And to her opinion, responds “Pike.”

Similarly while unfortunately, this headline seems all too familiar to the brothers of Kappa Delta Rho, The Pennsylvania State University Chapter. Recent buzz on campus revealed that brothers of KDR also took it upon themselves to post nude and obscene pictures of women passed out drunk on their private Facebook page.

The MSU video showed the apparent brother of Pike and the woman actively, voluntarily, and while intoxicated participating. (Which as an undergrad criminology major, is still recognized as ILLEGAL because by law, any decision (or contract) formed while under the influence of alcohol (or drugs) is irrelevant in a court of law due to the fact the victim was not in the rightful, sound, or conscious mind.

Subsequently, differences include that MSU made a video, whereas, PSU posted pictures. These pictures of the women that were taken clearly show it was done involuntarily and without consent or knowledge of as to what was going on. While the photos from PSU don’t show literal sexual acts like the video, its still sexual assault! As if the brothers of KDR weren’t already in enough trouble, an article from Philly.com brings to surface that there had been another instance where members of KDR had been asked to shut down the page for identical reasons by one of the girls whom was photographed. They honored her request, waited a while, then re-named and kept the Facebook page going.

Although PSU’s situation was entirely wrong, it makes me proud to say I’m a PSU student because of the way they handled it. Showing that some involved in the KDR fraternity still have their morals straight, an anonymous brother was named as a cooperating witness as well as some members whom are openly cooperating because they "want to do the right thing." Police were also being proactive with the victims offering legal and advocate advice as well as services. Ultimately, KDR was suspended for the remainder of the semester at PSU. Both the VP of student affairs and President of PSU are being very active in the case. Damon Simons, the Vice President of student affairs insists the allegations being held against the fraternity demands immediate attention and PSU needs to do more in order to address misconduct and sexual assault on campus. Meanwhile, Eric Barron the President of PSU, is working with KDR’s national leadership committee to determine if KDR will continue its presence on campus.

 Alternatively, at first the president of Pike’s Chapter at MSU seemed apologetic, sympathetic, and disclaimed any involvement with the production or distribution of the video.  He lost my respect when he further commented that nothing “clearly” shows it was an MSU student. Further, a marketing official from Pike’s national office also poorly handled the situation by addressing it as “an unfortunate attempt at defamation” and is apologetic for the “crude display and lack of respect to the woman in the video.” Not only does this show that Pike is unwilling to take responsibility for their brothers’ actions, but also trying to cover it up claiming they were framed seems to make me believe that they knew it was or could have been MSU’s chapter. Other than not being able to distinguish the origin of the video’s whereabouts as the abbreviation MSU isn’t clarified, the list of possible schools as follows : Massachusetts State University, MA ;  Michigan State University, MI ; Minnesota State University, MN ; Mississippi State University, MS ; Missouri State University, MO ; Montana State University, MT ; or Montclair State University, NJ etc.

Due to the fact that hiring an IT analyst may be a bit pricey in order to determine the origin of the slandering video it would definitely provide answers. Better yet, they could assign IT interns to trace and or analyze to find the state the video originated in.



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